Moment In Time
by The Phantom Dragon
Summary: Harry finds that small moment in time that makes all those sacrifices worth it.


_**I'm drunk*no shame there*. I'm bored *when am I not?* and it's a holiday. What do I do?**_

_**Write of course.**_

_**Happy little scene that I can't get out of my head for this adorably crazy family.**_

_**Snuggles**_**.**

**Moment In Time. **

Somewhere in the back of his brain processes Harry was quite sure he was going cross-eyed. But of course that was the least of his worriers right now.

'So!" The utterly unexpected request continued. "Can I hug you or what?"

_YES!... NO! _ The unfamiliar emotions danced somewhere between his gut and heart. He wanted this _so_ much- he couldn't even begin to describe the ache in his chest and arms demanding he _move_. But that annoying little smidgen of 'common sense' kept him immobilized in the same spot.

"Are… are you sure?!"

Even in his ears he could discern the uncertainty, and, _oh,_ how he _hated_ it. He had waited years- a lifetime- for this moment.

Yet here he was, standing like the same idiot the first time he ever managed to work up the courage to ask her mother out. Only this time it was _so_ much worse.

This was no woman he sought to find company with. It was so much more than that.

This was his daughter. The one he had traded his soul for. Had fought and bled to save. Had willingly given up his life for in hopes she could find some semblance of the peace he'd only ever managed to dream of on some less dark, distant night of pure selfish wantonness.

"Well…" those eyes, so calm and logical in a way that _hurt_ beyond all reasoning or physical bounds. "It _is_ what families do. No?"

Oh! Christ on a crutch! That was just NOT _fair_! She shouldn't be allowed to do THAT. Melt him with those big, liquidy soft eyes like a puppy pulled out of the snow.

Seeming to sense even _that_ miniscule lax in his defenses, she threw her arms around him and buried her head in his stomach like Mister pawing around to find the softest, warmest, most comforting spot to settle down in.

And like the softy he was under all the pretended frost, he was powerless to anything but stand and accept the warm glow that her aura persisted in transmuting to him.

Suddenly, it all came rushing back, like an old- but comforting- part of him that had long been forgotten. The part of him that used to dream about what if would be like to have someone always there to stick by him through thick and thin. Not because he'd saved their ass or spent years dispensing wisdom to their black holes of craniums. But the part that said this person was connected to him through something much, much deeper.

The connection of family, pure and simple.

"Love you Dad."

In the midst of his emotions he almost missed that tiny, muffled declaration.

Aw, what the hell. There was no changing this now. Fate had set them on this path whether they wanted it or not.

But they had the here and now, and he intended to make the most of it.

Allowing his own arms to glide naturally and smoothly around the much smaller form trying to burrow into his warmth, he put every emotion that had tormented him these past years into that one embrace that spoke volumes of what he'd been through to get to this moment in time.

"Love you too…" the word stopped only momentarily in the back of his throat, choked by the emotions it brought for this one and the one before that he had never been able to know, "Maggie."

Yes. The magic community, and especially Mab, could go to Hell. They would never understand.

To give up all the world for this one _small_ moment in time.

It was more than worth the price.

* * *

_**So I spent an afternoon reading all that the DF community managed to choke up for Maggie D, and my plot bunnies just went 'HUH" ARE YOU GUYS SERIOUS!? No offense, several of them were decent- but this is Harry's daughter and Margaret Lefay's granddaughter we're talking about, no?**_

_**So this is what it came up with. May be taken as a random scene in Shinobi Sorceress for those following it if you wish.  
**_

_**Reviews welcome, even if it is to shout at my hard ass take on things with everyone else. **_


End file.
